Chateau Lloyd

Yeah, it's a meme, but it's also true.  I recently started re-reading Evelyn Waugh's Helena, a small book about the saintly mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (who is revered as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church).

It's a short book, easy to read, and Waugh's central conceit is to treat it as his "smart set" books and have people use the current vernacular. 

Waugh considered it his best book and was hurt by its poor reception and low sales.  It's not uncommon for others to favor their less successful books.  I suppose I'm somewhat of an exception because Long Live Death is both my biggest seller and my favorite work.

I'll do a full review when I finish, but until then I will note that the book has me once more reaching into my Roman reference library and contemplating that long-vanished world that nevertheless left all manner of monuments and important works.

Put simply, if you aren't thinking  of the Roman Empire, you aren't thinking at all.